REVIEW: A Letter to Momo (2011)

by Dustin Kramer

In a narrative, most human emotions are generally considered universal constructs. No one has trouble recognizing when a story is trying to make you sad or happy or uncomfortable. But not all elicitations are so cut-and-dry. When dealing with the topic of grief, storytellers have their work cut out for them. Creating a world in which characters can believably exist and grow is hard enough, but handling one of the most trying and subjective of human emotions can complicate what could otherwise be more or less emotionally ubiquitous. While I love more abstruse takes on the subject — Lars von Trier’s Antichrist  or Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, for example  — there’s something extremely satisfying about the deft handling of the theme in a family film. Seven years in the making, Hiroyuki Okiura’s A Letter to Momo is one such film.